Piyali sat on the platform bench and waited for the third train to Barrackpore.
There was a railway strike that day. The platform was overcrowded and she was late. She had already let two trains pass since she could not get on them because of the mob.
Piyali repeatedly kept glancing at her wristwatch, wondering what harsh words she would have to hear from her boss, The Satan’s Spawn, that day.
Piyali looked at her watch again. Thirty minutes past eleven. She was way past her arrival time, which was ten in the morning. Even though she had called in to let her boss know that she would be late, she knew a scolding was coming.
Suddenly, the crowd perked up. Piyali could hear the distant rumble of a train. Then came the loud, piercing whistle of the train that sent a soothing impulse through Piyali’s brain. No matter however crowded it was that day, she must get on the train.
The train came and everybody readied themselves. Piyali tensed her body, ready to fight to get on the train.
The train stopped and the fight began. Piyali felt people stepping on her feet, crushing it even; but she fought on.
Finally, victory was hers and she found herself on the way to her office.



As he stepped down from the train, Raghav felt something under his feet. He did not pay much heed, but patted down his matted hair, courtesy of the struggle he had to endure to get on and off the train.
Then Raghav pressed down his scrunched up shirt, checked his pockets and was finally ready to start for the office.
Once again, he felt something hard under his shoe. He moved his feet only to reveal a shiny, silver watch, now having suffered a few scratches due to Raghav stepping on it.
He bent down and picked it up. It was, no doubt, a ladies’ watch. The numbers were each denoted by tiny colourful stones.
Raghav wondered who would have lost it while fighting to get on the train. His mobile ringtone broke into his thoughts.
He checked the caller identity. It was his boss.
Shoving the watch quickly into his pocket, Raghav hurried towards his office.



After a long, hard day, Piyali could finally invert her time in finding her watch. She knew she had lost it at her home station.
So, instead of waiting and chatting with her friends after her shift was over, Piyali rushed to the station.
She knew there was a one in a million chance of her getting her watch back. Still, she dared to hope.
The watch was the most precious thing to her in the world. It was given to her mother by her grandfather and Piyali’s mother had passed on the watch as a gift to Piyali. No matter however old it was, it was dear to Piyali.
She had been gifted other costlier watched, but this one was her lucky charm.
She got off at her station and started searching the place where she had sat on the bench and the place around it, retracing her steps.



As Raghav was walking leisurely to the station, he put his hands in his pockets. He felt something and took it out. He had almost forgotten about the watch he had picked up at the station that morning.
Thinking the owner of the watch would probably be searching for it by then, Raghav sped to the station.
As he arrived the place where he had found the watch, he saw a woman, probably his age, if not younger, on her hands and knees looking under a the bench.
He walked up to her and said, ‘Hello.’
She looked up to reveal a flustered face. ‘Yes?’ she asked.
‘I guess I have what you are looking for.’ Saying this, Raghav took out the watch from his pocket.
The woman almost pounced on it, like a hungry tiger pounces on its prey.
‘Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!’ she exclaimed, jumping up and down like a child on Christmas eve who had received just what she wanted.
Everybody standing nearby on the station looked at them both.
Then, as if realizing for the first time that she was in a public place, she calmed down and blushed harder.
‘Sorry for that,’ she apologized.
‘It’s okay,’ Raghav said, looking amused.
His train arrived at the station and he mentally debated getting on it.
‘I’m Raghav,’ he said, holding out his hand.
Piyali tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and shook his hand. ‘I’m Piyali.’



The little things always lead to bigger, better things.